Homebound horror

Day One

I was parked in Woodside that day. The weather was nice. Traffic along Northern getting by the BQE has been fierce for weeks now. DOT rebuilt that intersection and it's brilliant. So brilliant that the drivers can't figure it out at all, hence the congestion.

I decided to be clever and take the back street just south of Northern. It goes the same distance, at least as much as I need, and there's no bog down at the BQE. So I cruise along and I'm about to pass under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway when I hear a loud thump as the car shudders from some impact. My peripheral vision catches a glimpse of something very dark shooting up the windshield and vanishes. I wasn't sure what it was, but the rush of thoughts strike me with fear. I didn't stop. I continued on, all the while gazing hard into my mirrors to see something ANYTHING in my rearview mirrors but to no avail.

I'm caught at a light. I'm afraid to get out and look for the inevitable, a dead pigeon caught in my roofrack. There can be nothing worse to find from this incident. I thought about it. I stare off into the distance through the windshield trying to decide whether I should check or not. My gaze is interrupted by a mark on the glass. Something like a white smear starting from about mid windshield and up. Did that happen last weekend when I pulled the dashboard out?

Wait.

No. Not from that. It's on the outside of the glass. And there is something along the smear. Fuzz? No tiny feathers.

***groan***

That clinches it. A bird flew into my windshield. I still refuse to get out and look since I didn't see anything in my rearview. Hell. It's gotta be stuck in the roofrack.

I drove the rest of the way home in apprehension. When I got out of the car, there was nothing there. In fact the only evidence that anything happened was that streak on the windshield. Baffled regarding the victim's whereabouts, I went in.

Day 2

Parked in the same place and took the same route home. I was honestly hoping to find nothing. That way I can think that the animal wasn't badly injured and flew off. Unrealistic, but hopeful. But the horror overcame me as I saw a dead pigeon lying on the side of the road right where the impact happened a day earlier. I ended that poor animal's life. I have to try to be even more careful in the future. I hate killing things like that.